Value of th new units: Your Thoughts

[Tianx]

Just want to share some input on what I think about the new units/ability, add in here if you have anything else to add

Rune Mage: High cost, high leadership, pretty useless for warrior, maybe okay for mage but not worth it for the cost

Orc tracker: Decent tank, but since it's level 4, hard to keep no loss, but summon unit is good for absorbing the damage. Good replacement for Dryad if you don't have any in the game

Faun: Seems good on paper but the range of the projectile is way too short. Maybe good in combo with the plant but have to try it out still. Sleeping is pretty useless and damage isn't high enough to justify to use it. Enchanted projectile reduce damage and defense but only by 1 though

Goblin Shaman: Very unpredictable and at times crazily good/annoying with the astral damage.

Fire Engineer: Good in combo with droids but low damage. More of a utility unit in support of the droid army than stand out on its own.

Witch Hunter: Good counter against any spell casting unit esp. these pesky shaman.

Still trying out the rest.

[Rhygadon]

My experience from early-game play (up to about level 12):

So far, I'm enjoying the Orc Tracker and the revised (basic) Goblins. Goblin Shaman is interesting but seems to die too easily, and I don't like that setting up the spirit link to a Goblin stack uses up an action. (For only 50% protection for a few turns, where another stack loses the HP anyway, that seems expensive.) Very nice that the basic Goblins are now officially "Archer" units!

Blood Shaman has the same problem as the original Shaman - good on paper, but often useless in an actual fight. Except even worse, because the spirit attack is weaker and the other attacks aren't often available. Plus, the Adrenaline 2 power forces a sacrifice of a Goblin Shaman, which really hurts in the early game. Late game, with bigger stacks and Adren 3 available, they might be much better.

Fire Engineer + Droids was OK, but quickly got boring. Might be interesting as a combo with Necromancers or some other fragile spellcaster unit.

Witch Hunter is intriguing, but the damage from the special anti-mage power seems fairly weak (at least in the early game; I hope it scales up with the target stack), and the base melee attack is so weak (for the Leadership cost) that even against mages it's unimpressive.

I tried Faun + Thorns for a while. The Sleep is better than you think - the key is to let it run for two turns to keep that unit out of the fight *before* you finish with the Nightmare. Still, it isn't very fun to play, and there are too many limitations (terrible basic attack, debuffs at night, plant-resurrect is zero-range). I'll try the Faun again if/when I have access to Dryads and Ents -- *that* could be fun!

The Adrenaline mechanic overall has been interesting, and certainly makes the basic fights fresh again. I do wish there was a way to see units' Adrenaline levels without right-clicking them all ...

[Zechnophobe]

Rune Mage: Requires you to keep a LOT of runes on hand to make him useful. Though, he is at least a Level 5 unit you can get automatically in the first 3 islands.

Engineer: Holy cow. He blinds, he summons droids, and repairs your other droids. With the alchemist kit he can move around for even better damage.

Faun: Resurrects thorn hunters at about 90% of an equal leadership stack. That's good enough in my book for a utility user. Sleep for two turns is a little hard to use, but good. Still, such little damage and HP... he's really just there to support.

Witch Hunter: Another great niche unit. Damaging vs caster ability not so great, but spell lock is nice at level 3, and stats are somewhat made better by auto-buff.

Orcs: Haven't used many... they are really frustrating to fight against, since it is hard to keep in your head all the random stuff they do now.

Pirate Ghosts: They seem to always find a treasure chest, not just if there aren't any. Decent, especially with stone skin, but still feel they are missing something.

[BB Shockwave]

I like the Witch Hunter. Even against non-mages, a level 3 unit with 110 HP, that's a good tank.

I'm confused by the Rune Mage's description. I just started a game today, so could not hire one yet - do his skills depend on how many Talent Runes you have alltogether, or how many unused ones you have? Because the latter seems like a waste, they are better off used on skills.

Anyway, him having a Resurrection skill that works on everyone, Level 5 included, seems really nice. Especially that the Paladin's Resurrection skill strengthens it.

Also - just like some other units in AP prior, he suffers from overlapping skill descriptions, thus "High Mage" has the "Magic Resistance"s description, and so on. THus, I don't know what the "Runic Armor" ability does. Anyone knows?

[Urbz]

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

I like the Witch Hunter. Even against non-mages, a level 3 unit with 110 HP, that's a good tank.

I'm confused by the Rune Mage's description. I just started a game today, so could not hire one yet - do his skills depend on how many Talent Runes you have alltogether, or how many unused ones you have? Because the latter seems like a waste, they are better off used on skills.

Anyway, him having a Resurrection skill that works on everyone, Level 5 included, seems really nice. Especially that the Paladin's Resurrection skill strengthens it.

Also - just like some other units in AP prior, he suffers from overlapping skill descriptions, thus "High Mage" has the "Magic Resistance"s description, and so on. THus, I don't know what the "Runic Armor" ability does. Anyone knows?

Runemage checks how many unused Talent Runes you have, else it would be way too powerful anyhow. This might seem like a waste but I kinda like how you have to choose, although I do not have enoughleadership to use them yet.

[BB Shockwave]

Hmm, interesting. As a Paladin, I will end up with a lot of unused Mind Runes anyway (as I get the most of those) which'd really boost resurrection. And of course, you can easily do the Phantom trick with the Rune Mage.

I'm thinking of doing an all-human army walkthrough with my Paladin - most of their units are available from the start, and frankly I never used human units much in my previous walkthrough. The line-up I am thinking is: Rune Mages, Paladins, Archmages, Horsemen, Witch Hunters (with Knights and Inquisitors in the reserve, to be used against Dragon/Undead armies instead of Paladins/Archmages). Rune Mages boost Archmage/Inquisitor attacks too. And this'd always leave me with two units that resurrect.

[Saiko Kila]

Originally Posted by BB Shockwave

I like the Witch Hunter. Even against non-mages, a level 3 unit with 110 HP, that's a good tank.

I used him in that role too, but his defense is on weakish side, comparing to other high-HP units, so can't soak that much. But he's good as a support, and to block or terminate weaker units. His most useful skill is magic shackles, and ability to use both shackles and self-buff together with move/attack in one turn is quite good.

BTW, I have 10th level mage and still can't recruit a single runemage. They're more demanding than some dragons

[BB Shockwave]

I have around 620 Leadership with my Paladin on Level 3 (got Grand Strategy Medal plus took Leadership I skill), I hope I can recruit at least one soon. They are also incredibly expensive... 15.000 Gold! More then Dragons even!

BTW - One correction to note. I have been using Assassins (and they are needed, Debir is crawling with Orcs!) and found out how the "Find Weakness" ability works. Unlike the description, which says you must destroy the enemy unit, it is actually enough to just attack them with Backstab or Murder. Each time you attack an enemy type, the damage bonus goes up by 5% - and unlike Favourite Enemy, this is possible for all kind of units! My Assassins already have 10% bonuses against orcs and goblins. This makes taking care of them and not losing all of them all the more important.

[BB Shockwave]

Finally got enough Leadership to hire one Rune Mage. Must say... AWESOME.

Firstly, something I did not notice before. He has the RUNIC ability that activates only in battle - it does the following:

-Might Runes: Increases the damage (minimum and maximum) of the Rune mage by 2xNumber of Might Runes. (Basic damage is 40-55, with a maximum of 20 Runes, he does 80-95 Damage! )
-Mind Runes: Increases the HP of the Rune Mage by 10x Number of Mind Runes! They have a basic HP of 450, with the maximum of 20 Runes he'd have 650 HP - not that high, but high for a Mage.
-Magic Runes: Depending on the number of Magic Runes you have, the Rune Mage's basic attack can impose different negativ conditions with as 30% chance per hit. I have only got 1 Rune right now, with that, the effect is Helplessness. I wonder what will be the effect on higher levels...

As for the Talents - Destruction is a very Powerfull Astral Damage beam attack, although it hits friend and foe alike, if you position the Mage correctly (with 3 speed it is easy) you can hit multiple enemies at the same time. Resurrection is more powerfull then an Inquisitor's, and also increased by Mind Runes. Illusion is random, and the summoned unit is placed next to the Rune Mage.

I've found 4 of them so far, though it'll be long before I can recruit another one...

[Zechnophobe]

Eh. Rune Mage has some cute utility. But after a while you'll realize:

1) You'd kinda like to use those runes to get some more skills
2) With less than like 10 to 20, his abilities are simply not that great

I mean, 2k leadership is the same as a red dragon, which has 870 hit points without needs like 30 runes stored up, and can fire a line of flame that lights things on fire... and can fly far to get there.

I dropped my Rune Mages after I realized that all their stuff is really weak unless you have a LOT of runes saved up. They are also the biggest pushovers when the AI has them hehe.